NCERT / CBSE NOTES : Chapter Summary

Devotional Paths to the Divine

Medieval Indian Ideas of Devotion

Religion is an organized approach to belief in a divine
power and creates a bond between unrelated people to form cooperative groups.
This intermingling led to the development of many new ideas within the Indian
subcontinent like social privileges by birth into a certain family or caste and
inequality.

Some people were against such ideas and hence they started towards the
teachings of the Buddha and Jainas. There were some people who accepted the
idea of Bhakti or devoting oneself to God. The three main deities were Shiva,
Vishnu and Durga while all the other gods and goddesses were their avatars.

People started worshiping as per rituals recommended in the Puranas. However,
later even the Puranas mentioned that God blessed people on their devotion and
irrespective of their caste. This was the beginning of the Bhakti movement
which quickly gained popularity and also adopted by the Buddhist and Jain
belief system.

In South India, this movement was propagated by the Nayanars and the Alvars
where the former worshiped Lord Shiva, the latter worshipped Lord Vishnu. The
rulers that time built temples for the saints to strengthen the link between
the Bhakti tradition and temple worship.

The hagiographies and poems compiled by the saints are an invaluable source of
information for us today. The Bhakti movement was greatly influenced by
philosophers like Shankaracharya and Ramanuja.

Shankaracharya, a firm believer of Lord Brahma said Advaita or the oneness of
the individual soul

and the Supreme God leads to salvation. While Ramanuja, a
loyal devotee of Lord Vishnu said that Vishishtadvaita or the separateness of
the individual soul even when merged with the Supreme God leads to its
salvation. Their teachings inspired a new way of Bhakti that became popular in
North India.

In Karnataka, a new Bhakti tradition was started by Basavanna, called the
Virashaiva movement. Its followers believed in equality of all humans, and were
against all forms of ritual and idol worship.

Important Saints of Maharashtra and North India

During the medieval period, many saints emerged in the
Indian Subcontinent teaching that the power to save people belongs to the
"Divine Name". They usually taught using poems and songs written in
their regional language. The important saint-poets of Maharashtra, were
Jñāneshwar, Namdev, Eknath and Tukaram and taught in Marathi.

They worshipped Lord Vitthala, an avatar of Lord Vishnu, lived an ordinary life,
and rejected the idea of renunciation. Sant Mirabai, a passionate devotee of
Lord Krishna, greatly influenced the people of Rajasthan and Gujarat with her
bhajans.

After the 13th century, new developments took place in the Bhakti movement in
North India. In the north, people were greatly influenced by saints like
Tulsidas, a devotee of Lord Rama, and Surdas, a devotee of Lord Krishna. To
express his devotion, Tulsidas wrote the Ramcharitmanas, while Surdas composed
the Sursagara, Surasaravali and Sahitya Lahari.

Another important saint is Sant Kabir who was brought up by a Muslim family of
weavers. He is one of the first Indian saints to harmonize the teachings of
Hinduism and Islam. His teachings can be found in books like the Guru Granth
Sahib, Panch Vani and Bijak.

In the 15th century, another great saint, Shankaradeva was born
in Assam and was a devotee of Lord Vishnu. He started the practice of namghars
or houses of recitation and prayer that is practiced till date.

The Nathpanthis, Siddhacharas and Yogis religious groups were formed around the
same time and did not believe in rituals, but preached that one should
sacrifice worldly pleasures. These groups were popular among people from the
lower castes due to their different ideas on devotional religion.

A common feature among the saints is that their works were written in their
regional languages and could be easily sung, one of the reasons for their
popularity. The poor like artisans, peasants, laborers and traders were greatly
influenced by the saints and helped to spread their teachings.

Guru Nanak and the Sikh Movement

The Guru Granth Sahib begins with the word “Ik Onkar,” which
means “there is only one God”. It is composed by Guru Nanak, the founder of
Sikhism and was born in 1469 at Talwandi. He finally settled in Kartarpur on
the banks of the river Ravi.

His followers offered prayers by singing his hymns and ate together in langar,
a common kitchen. His place of worship was dharmsal, now known as a Gurudwara.
Guru Nanak appointed Lehna as his successor; known as Guru Angad.

Guru Angad compiled Guru Nanak’s and his own compositions in the Gurmukhi
script, which is used for writing the Punjabi language. Later, all the
teachings of Nanak’s successors and other religious people were compiled into
the holy book of the Sikhs ─ the Guru Granth Sahib, affirmed by Guru Gobind Singh.

His followers were mainly traders and artisans, as Guru Nanak insisted that his
followers follow a productive occupation. Guru Nanak’s teachings emphasized on
three things: nam japna or right belief and worship, kirt karna or honest
living, and vand chhakna or helping others.

In the 17th century, Harmandar Sahib at Ramdaspur developed
into an independent state of the Sikh community, now known as the Golden
Temple, Amritsar. Seeing the Sikh community grow, Mughal Emperor Jahangir
started considering them a potential threat, and had Guru Arjan
executed. This led to the development of the Sikh movement and the
creation of the Khalsa Panth by Guru Gobind Singh that later became a political
entity.

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